Marina's SHORT ESSAY I

         Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Walhol

Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Walhol are different but yet they are still similar at the same time. They didn’t come from the same background but they are sharing some similarities. Every one of them uses different methods and themes that been expressed in their art work. They both struggled to fit in, which made them work harder for their goals. Their life’s experience and heritage inspired them to use the art as their voice and they followed their career path with true passion and achieved fame.

Andy Warhol had very hard life, he was sick and suffered from Sydenham chorea, a syndrome of involuntary movements and his family was poor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Andy was very interested in art since young age with the support of his mother so he even perused an education in art. Then he got famous in New York. His unique style of such as a variety of colors and also recreated the same image, contained famous people of the time or objects with many arts like painting, drawing and films. His work helped the American society, as consumers because of the advertisements. As well as the tragic events of the time of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe. His work was inspired by mostly religion and homosexuality and most of his work was consisted of nude men, “to be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude" and “when the tradition of painting became more secular, other themes also offered the opportunity of painting nudes”, John Berger stated. He had a friendship with Jean Michel Basquiat since Warhol had interest for Basquiat’s work, which leaded them to influence in each other’s work. Also, Warhol was attracted by artists and fame, as well as Basquiat who talked about money and that was reflected in his work because he came from a poor family as well. Warhol died when he was 58 years old because of a surgical complication. But until today, he is an example of overcoming obstacles and hard work.

Jean Michel Basquiat had troubled childhood; he is mixed of Haitian Puerto 
Rican and lived in Brooklyn, New York. He came from a family that used to love art and used to take him into art, visited The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art and his mother enrolled him to become a member in the museums. He dropped out school, which made his father to kick him out of the house and he became homeless at age 17 and sell t-shirts, “Keeping males and females from telling the truth about what happens to them in families is one-way Patriarchal culture is maintained”, Bell Hooks stated. He was painting on the walls of the building, which caused him to make friends and got a job that he didn’t liked because it wasn’t related to art. Then he started to do some paintings and sell them and became famous, “we come home to ourselves”, Bell Hooks stated. Then he met Andy Warhol and they became very close friends. He moved from New York to California to produce his work. And his friendship with Warhol made him more popular. Later after that he got back into drugs, which killed his career and killed him as well at very young age when he was 28. He worked hard for his success but once he got, he didn’t find anything else to gain.

 

Work Cited

• "Andy Warhol's Life." The Warhol, www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/. Basquiat Street  ArtMasterpieces - Street Art Legends Series. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.widewalls.ch/street-art-legends-best-of-basquiat-art/

• Berger, John. Ways of Seeing:Penguin, 2008.

• Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. Tauris, 2007.
• Hooks, B. (2007). Black looks: Race and representation. Boston, MA: South End Press.

• Hooks, B. (2005). The will to change: Men, masculinity, and love. New York: Washington Square Press.